Contact device.



" Patented June 18, 1912.

COLUMBIA PLANDGRM Con WASHINGTON, D. c.

w y l n rib.

EDWARD L. AIKEN, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO THOMAS A. EDISON, INCORPORATED, OF WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY,

A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

CONTACT DEVICE,

Original application filed July 16, 1904, Serial No. 216,781.

Specification of Letters Patent.

1909. Serial No. 488,120.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, EDWARD L. AIKEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at East Orange, Essex county, New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Contact Devices, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to contact devices and is a division of my application Serial No. 216,781, entitled Contact devices, and filed July 16th, 1904. The device therein claimed consisted in a coin or check controlled device whereof the contact device of this present application was a feature.

The contact devices of this and the parent application were designed with special reference for use in coin controlled devices operated by electric motors, such as phonographs. lVhile the switch or contact device of this present application is specially adapted for use with such devices, it may readily be understood that it is not limited in its application for use with such coin controlled devices, but may be of use in various arts in which it may be desirable to operate a contact maker actuated by a light spring by tripping in any manner a pawl or other releasable member holding the contact member set in open position, the invention being as broad as is indicated in the appended claims.

The coin controlled device of my parent application comprises a tripper mechanism in a coin chute, which tripper is struck by a coin in its descent through the coin chute and causes the actuation of mechanism which closes the motor circuit of a phonograph, or other device, and in a practical application of my invention shown in the drawings, namely; the application of the same to a phonograph mechanism, the phonograph carriage opens the circuit 011 its return in the usual manner. It is desirable in the construction of a device of this character to produce a coin-tripping mechanism which is sufliciently sensitive to respond with certainty to the action of the coin, but which also is so constituted that it cannot easily be fraudulently operated as by violently jarring the machine. The contact device should be especially adapted to cooperate with a tripping mechanism of the character referred to. It should particularly be adapted to be actuated, upon release, to make with certainty a good contact under the impulsion of a comparatively lightand weak spring, since the contact maker has to be reset in open posit-ion by the return movement of the phonograph or other device whose operation is controlled by the contact maker, the propelling means of which is usually of comparatively small power.

The object of my invention, accordingly, is the provision of an improved contact making device of the character described.

In order to explain more clearly my in vention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a plan, and Fig. 2 a front elevation of a contact device constructed in ac cordance with my invention, showing the same as applied to the coin actuated phonograph. Fig. 3 is a detail view showing the gravity pawl, which holds the contact device in a circuit position.

In the drawings 1 represents a coin chute, the lower end of which opens into an enlarged portion 2, which portion in turn extends downward, into the money boX 23.

The tripper consists of a lever 3, pivoted at the point 4 intermediate its ends. One end of the tripper projects into the enlarged portion 2 of the coin chute. A vertical slot 25 is provided in the coin chute to allow the lever to oscillate a short distance upon its pivot. The opposite end of the lever 3 is provided with a counterweight- 5, longitudinally adjustable along the same, and held by a set screw 6. It is obvious that by the adjustment of the counterweight, the tripper may be made more or less sensitive with regard to the impulse necessary to operate it. 95

For closing the circuit of the motor, I employ a movable contact 7, and a station ary or fixed contact 8, the same being connected respectively with the conductors 9 and 10, leading to the source of current and the motor. The movable contact 7 is an enlargement of the outer end of the arm 11, extending outward from the body 11 which is rigidly secured to a vertical rock shaft- 12 by a set screw 14, said rock shaft being suitably journaled in bearings 1313 attached to the cabinet of the machine. A

holding arm 15 extends rearward from the body 11 and is adapted to be engaged and held by the gravity pawl 16 when the contact arm 11 is in its open circuit position. The pawl 16 is pivoted at 19 to the cabinet, and is provided with a shoulder 20 to engage the arm 15, as shown in Fig. 3. A spiral spring 17, having its ends held respectively in the lower bearing 13 and arm 11, tends to turn the rock shaft and close the circuit. The upper portion of the shaft 12 is provided with an arm 18, which extends into the path of the diaphragm carrier of the phonograph, or other portion of the carriage when raised for its return movement, in order that the return of the carriage may turn the rock shaft until the arm 15 passes the shoulder 20 of the pawl 16, thereby holding the device in its open circuit posit-ion. The shoulder 20 is preferably located slightly below the pivot 19, so that the pressure of the arm 15 againstthe shoulder will tend to hold the pawl in its locking position in spite of any jarring upon the cabinet. The free end 21 of the pawl is broadened and overhangs the end of the tripper 3.

The contact 8 consists of a strip of spring metal secured at one end to the cabinet, and extending therefrom in the same general direction as the path of the movable contact 7, gradually approaching and crossing the same. Its free end is bent to form a stop 22. The contact strip 8 may be used alone, but I prefer to reinforce it by means of a strip 8, extending from the support to about the point where the contact 7 first touches the strip 8.

The operation of the device is as follows: Upon dropping a coin in the chute 1, it

falls until it strikes the end of the tripper 3,

whereupon it moves the same from the position shown in full lines in Fig. 2 to that shown in dotted lines. The coin then bounds or slides from the end of the tripper and falls into the coin receptacle. The opposite end of the lever 3 raises the pawl 16 until the shoulder 20 is above the arm 15, whereupon the spring 17 rotates the rock shaft and carries the contact 7 against the contact 8. The contact 7 first touches the contact 8 at some distance from its end, and sweeps along the same until it reaches the stop 22, the contact 8 being thus forced rearward from the posit-ion shown in full lines in Fig. 1 to that shown in dotted lines, whereby the pressure between the contacts 7 and 8 gradually increases. This rubbing action of the contacts tends to keep them bright and clean. The weight of the parts constituting the movable contact, that is, the arm 11, body 11, holding arm 15, rock shaft 12 and arm 18, is such that they are given a considerable momentum by the spring 17 before the contact 7 reaches the contact 8, whereby the contact 7 delivers a hammer blow which carries it against a considerable resistance produced by the friction between the contacts until it strikes the stop 22. The contact having been made, the motor operates and the phonograph carriage is fed along the record in the usual manner. The phonograph carriage is then raised from the record and returned to its starting position by any well known means. During its return movement, some portion of the carriage, such as the diaphragm arm, strikes the arm 18 and returns the rock shaft to its original position, where it is held by the pawl 16.

It will be observed that the circuit is not opened at that portion of the strip 8 which is in contact with 7 during the operation of the phonograph, but is opened at a point somewhat removed therefrom, so that any arcing which occurs when the circuit is opened will not injure the bright surfaces of the working contacts.

Having now described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. A contact device, comprising a rotatable me1nber,a contact projecting outwardly therefrom, a yielding contact strip located in the same plane as the path of said contact and concave thereto and gradually approaching and crossing the same, a releasable means normally biased to hold said contact in an open circuit position, and spring means for rotating said rotary member when released from said holding means into contact with said yielding contact, and causing it to sweep along said yielding contact against the increasing spring resistance thereof, substantially as set forth.

2. A contact device, comprising a vertical rock shaft, a contact arm projecting outwardly therefrom, a yielding contact strip in the path of said arm and concave thereto and gradually approaching and crossing the same, a pawl normally biased to hold said rock shaft in an open circuit position, and a spring for rotating said rock shaft when the pawl is released to carry the end of said contact arm into contact with said yielding contact, and causing it to sweep along said yielding cont-act against the increasing spring resistancethereof, substantially as set forth.

8. A contact device, comprising a rotatable member, a cont-act projecting outwardly therefrom, a yielding contact located in the same plane as the path of said contact, concave thereto and gradually approaching and crossing the same, means normally'biased to hold said member in open circuit position, spring means for rotating said member along its path into contact with said yielding contact against the increasing sprlng re 1 sistance thereof to close the circuit, and means carried by said member by which the latter may be rotated in the opposite direction againstthe tension of the spring so as to permit the means for holding said memher in open circuit position to become effec' tive, substantially as described.

4. A contact device comprising a rotatable member, a contact projecting outwardly therefrom, a yielding contact located in the same plane as the path of said contact, concave thereto and gradually approaching and crossing the same, gravity actuated means for holding said member in open circuit position, spring means for rotating said 1nemher along its path into contact with said yielding contact against the increasing spring resistance thereof to close the circuit,

and means carried by said member by which the latter may be rotated in the opposite direction against the tension of the spring so as to permit the gravity actuated means to operate to hold said member in open circuit position, substantially as described.

5. A contact device, comprising a vertical rock shaft, a contact arm projecting outwardly therefrom, a yielding contact strip in the path of said arm concave thereto and gradually approaching and crossing the same, a pawl adapted to hold said rock shaft in open circuit position, a spring for rotating said rock shaft when the pawl is released to carry the end of said contact arm into contact with said yielding contact and causing it to sweep along said yielding contact against the increasing spring resistance thereof to close the circuit, and means carried by said rock shaft by which the latter may be rotated in the opposite direction against the tension of the spring, so that it may be re'c'ngaged by the pawl, substantially as set forth.

6. In a device of the character described, a spring actuated contact, a contact strip of spring metal of considerable length located in the same plane as the path of the movable contact and gradually approaching and crossing said path, said strip being bent at one end to form a stop, and releasable means normally biased to hold said contact in its open circuit position out of contact with said strip against the tension of said spring, whereby when released,the contact moves with a hammer blow into contact with said strip and sweeping along said strip against the increasing resistance thereof a c0nsidcrable distance until it encounters said stop.

This specification signed and witnessed this 2nd day of April 1909.

EDWARD L. AIKEN.

Witnesses:

DYER SMITH, JOHN M. CANFIELD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

